Archive for August 14th, 2018

13 August 2018 – For some time the Association of World Citizens has been concerned with the impact on children of U.N.-proclaimed sanctions as well as the impact of national boycotts of a State.

René Wadlow

On the one hand, economic and trade sanctions is one of the few instruments short of war to enforce world law and to modify in a positive direction the behavior of a State.

On the other hand, sanctions also can be a blunt weapon hitting the weak, sick and hungry who usually have had no or little influence on the policy being sanctioned.

In addition to U.N.-proclaimed sanctions, there have been national boycotts, often linked to internal political considerations such as the US boycott against Cuba or that of certain Arab States against Israel.

Rome/Bangkok (FAO)* – Fall Armyworm could threaten the food security and livelihoods of millions of small-scale farmers in Asia as the invasive crop-eating pest is highly likely to spread further from India, with South East Asia and South China most at risk, FAO on 14 August 2018 warned.

14 August 2018 (Sputnik)* – On Monday [13 August 2018], Dr. Richard Wolff, economist and professor at the New School University, told Radio Sputnik’s By Any Means Necessary that the stability of the US economy is wavering, and the country could be headed for another economic crash, reminiscent of the 2008 crisis.

“I would certainly be among those who take very seriously worker anxiety. It is, in general, an important aspect of how an economic system works for people,” Wolff told hosts Eugene Puryear and Sean Blackmon.

13 August 2018 (teleSUR)* – Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced that he will formally register as the Workers Party (PT) presidential candidate on Tuesday, one day before the August 15 deadline.

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“They will not shut me up,” began a letter written by the political leader held in a Curitiba prison since early April.

Attacks against children caught in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen must stop, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, appealed on 13 August 2018.

UNICEF/Al-Faqir | The escalating hostilities in southwest Syria endanger some 750,000 people – almost half of them children, like these boys pictured here, who have fled violence in Deraa.

In a tightly worded statement, UNICEF pointed out that since Sunday, 28 children were reported killed in Idlib and western Aleppo, located in northern Syria. The death toll included an entire family of seven.

Furthermore, three UNICEF-supported health facilities were also attacked, two of which are now out of service.